PREMIUM CONTENTNAIMA MORELLI

WEDNESDAY 25 FEBRUARY, 2015

From shoe boxes to railway stations, unconventional spaces display art for a fraction of the price of traditionalgalleries.

Aaron Anderson, Suburban Ruin, Image supplied (Sarah Nolan: Silver)

Possibly the world’s smallest gallery is hidden in a shady lane behindMelbourne’s crowded Swanston Street. Trink Tank consists of a shoebox-sizeshrine in the wall, in which a single art piece is exhibited.

The tiny ‘gallery’ is part of a big trend: unconventional arts spaces are poppingup in many Australian cities, changing the appreciation and role ofcontemporary visual art in their local communities.

Image via Trink Tank(https://www.facebook.com/trinktank/photos/pb.231370310221793.-2207520000.1424321766./1002524506439699/?type=3&theater)

Unconventional spaces democratising art

Also in Melbourne is Mailbox, a strip of nineteen tiny restored woodenmailboxes in the entrance foyer of a building, hosting site specific artworks. InCanberra, the recent Design Canberra festival had numerous exhibitions aroundthe city in unusual or unused spaces. Adelaide had a similar experience with theongoing project ‘Renew Adelaide’, inspired by New South Wales' RenewNewcastle arts rejuvenation project. Through these Renew projects, emptybuildings and shop fronts are revitalized thanks to artist intervention. The aim isto give vibrancy to the city’s urban areas to the community's benefit.

At a time in which artists are competing to find galleries and funding, thesespaces represent an inexpensive and viable solution. They are inexpensivealternatives to the white cube.

But unconventional spaces are not only an economic solutions for emergingartists. In Sydney renowned photographers from the Ocula group have foundedElizabeth Street Gallery. They are exhibiting work from some of NSW’s leadingphotographers in empty niches on the street. They see their project as a stance,being committed to ‘injecting creative imagination into the urban streetscapeand democratizing art’.

The democratization of art is a shared goal among the founders ofunconventional spaces. While a large part of the population is interested in art,people are often unsure how to access it. They may find traditional galleriesintimidating or simply not think of accessing them. With these spaces, viewerscome across art accidentally. They provide the unaware passerby withunexpected moments of beauty and reflection.

That’s the case with Conductor Projects, developing across two spaces inSydney’s busiest train stations. ‘St. James and Museum have over one millionpeople coming or going through the station every year. That level of exposure ishard to come by in most white cube spaces. The broadness of the audiencemeans that people who may not regularly go to galleries are being exposed toartists’ work’, explains Conductor Projects founder Tristan Chant. Chant explainsthat one of CP’s main objectives is to make the public more comfortable withviewing art. Feedback from CP indicates that there is good value in the projectand a strong interest from the community.

Conductor Project, Image supplied

Sarah Nolan, founder of Branch 3D, a shop window space in Sydney, also findsthat her idea resonates with the community. ‘The feedback has always beenpositive and appreciative - comments about how they look forward to theinstallation changeover every four weeks, or how they like this one.’

The window, previously used for a TV and radio repair shop, is part of Sarah’sown house. ‘We thought operating a window space would be ideal for triallingthe process of running a space and gathering an audience for long term plans’The location of Branch 3D is very accessible, being on a busy road and close topublic transport and other businesses.

Sometimes unconventional spaces can also be inside a space cluster. That's thecase with Canberra’s Chute Space. Chute Space is a project initiated by M16Artspace’s studio artists, Kerry Shepherdson and Jeffrey Skewes. It rivalsMelbourne’s Trink Tank as the smallest gallery in Australia.

The building M16 Artspace moved into was formerly the Griffith Library. Its bookreturn chute was transformed into Chute Space. ‘This is an exciting new way torepurpose our building, while paying homage to the history of the building’s

fabric,’ explains M16 Artspace’s exhibition manager Ellen Wignell.

The M16 Artspace building already houses three galleries, along with its twenty-seven studios and five workshop spaces. The role of Chute Space in this livelyenvironment is to allow artists to show experimental miniature works. As aspace for miniatures Chute has quite a different focus from M16’s main galleries,which focus on solo and group works of a cohesive nature.

Most of the artworks shown in Chute Space have been specifically made for thespace. Thus with these smaller dimensions in mind, artists have been able tomake site specific work or they have been challenged to make it new anddifferent.

Jacqueline Bradley, Draw a Line, 2015, Image via Chute Space(http://m16artspace.tumblr.com/post/108610307848/new-year-new-chute-space-exhibition)

The same goes for Branch 3D. ‘Artists are working in a restrictive space. Thelimitations allow or provoke the artist to produce work in a way they hadn'tanticipated.’ Sarah Nolan points out. ‘Most of the exhibitors have come up withworks that are an extension of what they would usually do. The works end upbeing very site specific to the space. They are usually different to what theywould show in a room where people can walk around the work or at least walkup closer to the work.’

These new art spaces are carving out an important role in the art system butthey are unlikely to replace traditional galleries.

Ellen Wignell observes that different kinds of exhibitions call for differentapproaches. ‘While changes in technology and uses of space will make it easierfor people to show work informally, the structure and curatorial input oftraditional gallery-based exhibits will still be an important part of the exhibitingmodel.’

Tristan Chant foresees the increment of unconventional spaces as a response toshrinkage in the commercial market. ‘This will force artists to start to developself-initiated opportunities to bridge the gap in the transition from earlypresentation to professional exhibition.’

He also thinks these kinds of spaces will be increasingly encouraged bygovernments. ‘There is a lot of space out there that may not be practical forcommercial businesses to operate in, and there is a big push to make themavailable to help bolster the creative economy.’

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Naima Morelli is an arts writer and curator who specialized in Italian contemporary art and art from the Asia­Pacific area.